The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music

Crosscurrents in Early Electronic Music: Italy—Part 1

Episode 100
Crosscurrents in Early Electronic Music: Italy—Part 1
Playlist
Berio, Maderna, Nono, Zuccheri, RAI Studio di Fonologia Musicale (RAI), Milan
Luciano Berio, “Mutazioni” (1955) from Prospettive Nella Musica (1956 RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana). The first complete tape work by Berio at the newly founded RAI studio, which he was running with composer Bruno Maderna. Sound engineering by Marino Zuccheri. Berio and Maderna kept an open mind about the music that would be produced under its roof. They did not align themselves aesthetically with either the musique concrète approach taken in Paris or the serialist, rules-based composing style of Cologne. “Bruno and I immediately agreed,” explained Berio, “that our work should not be directed in a systematic way, either toward recording acoustic sounds or toward a systematic serialism based on discrete pitches.”[1] As a consequence, Alfredo Lietti Marino Zuccheri, engineers for the studio, filled it with equipment that appealed to a wide spectrum of compositional needs. In 1956, studio no. 3 at RAI had a custom-built cabinet with six vertical racks consisting of audio generators (9 sine wave oscillators, 1 white noise generator, 1 pulse generator), sound modifiers (plate reverb, octave filter, high pass filter, low-pass filter, variable band-pass filter, third-octave filter, ring and amplitude modulators), and a mixing panel. Several tape recorders were available mix and match sounds. You can almost sense the excitement of the creation of these foundational works as each composer brought their own individualism to the sound a translated that into electronic music. 3:36
Berio & Maderna, “Ritatto di Città (poema radiofonico)” (1955) (1955 RAI). File from the RAI Archives. This is an excerpt from a radiophonic production that was 26’ long. 6:05
Bruno Maderna, “Notturno” (1956) from Prospettive Nella Musica (1956 RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana). Maderna’s first official solo tape work produced at the RAI studio. From an original disc released by the RAI in 1956. 3:24
Luciano Berio, “Perspectives” from Prospettive Nella Musica (1956 RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana). An eight-part work of experiments in transforming musical sounds and rhythms with electronic manipulation. 6:36
Bruno Maderna, “Música su Due Dimensioni” from História da Música Eletroacústica (1958). 7:10
Luciano Berio, “Momenti”(1960) from Images Fantastiques (Electronic Experimental Music) (1968 Limelight). This release was an American collection of European electronic music released on the Limelight label, a subsidiary of Philips. Although released a few years after “Momenti” was available elsewhere, this was an album that captivated my imagination at the time. You hear Berio’s innate sense for fashioning unique sounds and rhythms with this sound material, adding some reverb to give it depth, producing audio that is reminiscent of natural sounds, but transformed to give it an other-worldly quality. 7:02
Bruno Maderna, “Dimensioni II (Inventione su Una Voce)” from Musica Elettronica / Electronic Music (1994 Stradivarius). Anyone familiar with Italian new music will know the name of Cathy Berberian. She was an American operatic mezzo-soprano and for a time (1950-64) was married to Luciano Berio. She was a kind of muse for the modern composers at the Milan studio, lending her incredible vocal capabilities to tracks that could then be transformed into electronic music. One such famous piece, not included here because it is so familiar, is “Thema (Omaggio a Joyce)” by Berio. Instead, I wanted to feature another tape piece, this one by Maderna, because he not only transforms Berberian’s voice using electronic techniques but allows her to express herself as well in some unmodified sections. This marks a period where Maderna was longer magnetic tape pieces, ten minutes or more each. Unlike his shorter, more frenetic works, these longer pieces gave him time to develop themes, apply long silences, and structure his works around variations on his audio materials. 10:52
Luigi Nono, “Omaggio a Vedova” (1960) (1976 Wergo). A magnetic tape work by another outstanding contributor to electronic music in Italy, Luigi Nono. Like Berio, Nono went on to be better known for his instrumental and vocal compositions. This work is an homage to artist Emelie Vedova. Note that we feature another homage to Vedova from 1967 later in the podcast, “Parete 1967 _1” by Marino Zuccheri. 4:52
Niccolò Castiglioni, “Divertimento” (1960) from Elektron 3 (1967 Sugar Music). Produced at the Studio di Fonologia Musicale di Milano. Castiglioni was an Italian composer, born in Milan who later came to the United States to teach composition at the University of Michigan. This work sounds a bit like chirping insects and is the only tape piece he produced at the RAI. 2:38
Bruno Maderna, “Le Rire” (1962)” from Musica Elettronica / Electronic Music (1994 Stradivarius). Another long-form tape piece by Maderna. The voices heard and processed are those of Maderna, Cathy Berberian, and the sound designer Marino Zuccheri. The sounds in the beginning are modulated by sine waves and filters, plus some occasional ambient sounds like footsteps and rain. The second part of the work, beginning around the 11-minute mark, switches to more traditional musique concrete sounds reminiscent of drums, flutes, as well as white noise. 15:53
Luigi Nono, “La Fabbrica Illuminata” for voice and magnetic tape (1964) from Luigi Nono La Fabbrica Illuminata (1968 Wergo). Nono was also expanding his use of electronic sounds and wrapping them in vocal music. This work combines sounds created at the RAI with vocals written for a choir ( Chor Der RAI Mailand) and sopranos (Carla Henius). Marino Zuccheri helped Nono with the tape music. 16:28
Jon Hassell, “Music for Two Vibraphones” (1965) (1965 RAI). Yes, this is the Jon Hassell, the American composer and trumpeter. I know he is American, but I couldn’t resist including this brief track that he recorded while in Milan in 1965. To my ears, this has an especially digital sound, especially when you consider how time consuming it must have been to assemble the opening sequence using tape editing. It is also a work of contrasts, with the explosive opening section giving way to about a minute of extremely quiet, almost ambient sound to close the work. 2:43
Marino Zuccheri, “Parete 1967 _1” (1967) from Parete '67 Per Emilio Vedova (2018 Die Schachtel). The sound mixer and designer at the RAI studio, Zuccheri often appears as a credit on works created in the studio. Working as a sound technician after World War II, Zuccheri was transferred to the RAI headquarters in Milan where he met Luciano Berio. He was instrumental in developing the system and layout of the Studio di Fonologia Musicale, where he worked until 1983. His close collaboration with the composers working at the Studio, above all Berio, Maderna and Nono, gave rise most of their notable tape pieces. Visitors, such as John Cage, were quick to acknowledge his steady hand as chief orchestrator of sound and engineering at the studio. He was often asked to provide electronic music for broadcast and film productions, of which this is one, a collaboration with Emilio Vedova for the preparation of the Italian pavilion of the Montreal Expo. 15:03
Luigi Nono, “Contrappunto Dialettico Alla Mente” (For Magnetic Tape)(1968) from Roland Kayn / Luigi Nono – Cybernetics III / Contrappunto Dialettico Alla Mente (1970 DGG). Another one of Nono’s exquisite works combining vocals and electronic music on magnetic tape, recorded at RAI. In this work you can see how Nono complements the sound palette of the usual RAI sounds with sounds that are uniquely presented by human voices. Chorus, Coro Da Camera Della RAI; Conductor, Nino Antonellini; Soprano Vocals, Liliana Poli; Other Voices, Cadigia Bove, Elena Vicini, Marisa Mazzoni, Umberto Troni. 19:48
Opening background music: Bruno Maderna, “Serenata III” (1962)” from Musica Elettronica / Electronic Music (1994 Stradivarius). 11:20
Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.
For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.
 
[1] Joel Chadabe, Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997), 48

Crosscurrents in Electronic Tape Music in the United States

Episode 99
Crosscurrents in Electronic Tape Music in the United States
Playlist
Louis and Bebe Barron, “Bells of Atlantis” (1952), soundtrack for a film by Ian Hugo based on the writings of his wife Anaïs Nin, who also appeared in the film. The Barrons were credited with “Electronic Music.” The Barrons scored three of Ian Hugo's short experimental films and this is the earliest, marking an early start for tape music in the United States. Bebe told me some years ago about a work called “Heavenly Menagerie” that they produced in 1950. I have written before that I think this work was most likely the first electronic music made for magnetic tape in the United States, although I have never been able to find a recording of the work. Bells of Atlantis will stand as an example of what they could produce in their Greenwich Village studio at the time. They were also engaged helping John Cage produce “Williams Mix” at the time, being recordists of outdoor sounds around New York that Cage would use during the process of editing the composition, which is described below. The Forbidden Planet soundtrack, their most famous work, was created in 1956. 8:59
John Cage, “Williams Mix” (1952) from The 25-Year Retrospective Concert Of The Music Of John Cage (1959 Avakian). Composed in 1952, the tape was played at this Town Hall concert a few years later. Premiered in Urbana, Ill., March 22, 1953. From the Cage database of compositions: “This is a work for eight tracks of 1/4” magnetic tape. The score is a pattern for the cutting and splicing of sounds recorded on tape. Its rhythmic structure is 5-6-16-3-11-5. Sounds fall into 6 categories: A (city sounds), B (country sounds), C (electronic sounds), D (manually produced sounds), E (wind produced sounds), and F ("small" sounds, requiring amplification). Pitch, timbre, and loudness are notated as well. Approximately 600 recordings are necessary to make a version of this piece. The compositional means were I Ching chance operations. Cage made a realization of the work in 1952/53 (starting in May 1952) with the assistance of Earle Brown, Louis and Bebe Barron, David Tudor, Ben Johnston, and others, but it also possible to create other versions.” This was a kind of landmark work for John as he explored the possibilities of working with the tape medium. It is the only work from this period, created in the United States, for which there is an original recording of a Cage realization. He also composed “Imaginary Landscape No. 5” in 1952 for 42-disc recordings as a collage of fragments from long-playing records recorded on tape (he preferred to use jazz records as the source), put together with the assistance of David Tudor. Though some modern interpretations exist, there is no recording from the 1950s of a Cage/Tudor realization so I am unable to represent what it would have been like at that time. 5:42
Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky, “Moonflight” (1952) from Tape Music An Historic Concert (1968 Desto). This record documents tape pieces played at perhaps the earliest concert of American tape music at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 28, 1952. Realized at the composer’s Tape Music Center at Columbia University, the precursor of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. 2:54
Otto Luening, “Fantasy in Space” (1952) from Tape Music An Historic Concert (1968 Desto). Realized at the composer’s Tape Music Center at Columbia University, the precursor of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. 2:51
Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky, “Incantation” (1953) from Tape Music An Historic Concert (1968 Desto). This record documents tape pieces played at perhaps the earliest concert of American tape music at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 28, 1952. Realized at the composer’s Tape Music Center at Columbia University, the precursor of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. 2:34
Henry Jacobs, “Sonata for Loudspeakers” (1953-54) from Sounds of New Music (1958 Folkways). “Experiments with synthetic rhythm” produced by Henry Jacobs who worked at radio station KPFA-FM in Berkeley. Jacobs narrates the track to explain his use of tape loops and recorded sound. 9:29
Jim Fassett, track “B2” (Untitled) from Strange To Your Ears - The Fabulous World of Sound With Jim Fassett (1955 Columbia Masterworks). “The fabulous world of sound,” narrated with tape effects, by Jim Fassett. Fassett, a CBS Radio musical director, was fascinated with the possibilities of tape composition. With this recording, done during the formative years of tape music in the middle 1950s, he took a somewhat less daring approach than his experimental counterparts, but a bold step nonetheless for a national radio audience. He hosted a weekend program called Strange to Your Ears to showcase these experiments and this album collected some of his best bits. 8:15
Harry F. Olsen, “The Well-Tempered Clavier: Fugue No. 2” (Bach) and “Nola” (Arndt) and “Home, Sweet Home” from The Sounds and Music of the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer (1955 RCA). These “experimental” tracks were intended to demonstrate the range of sound that could be created with RCA Music Synthesizer. This was the Mark I model, equipped with a disc lathe instead of a tape recorder. When it was upgraded and called the Mark II in the late 1950s, it became the showpiece of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Here we listen to three tunes created by Harry F. Olsen, one of the inventors, in the style of a harpsichord, a piano, and “an engineer’s conception of the music.” 5:26
Milton Babbitt, “Composition For Synthesizer” (1960-61) (1968 Columbia). Babbitt was one of the only composers at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center who composed and produced works based solely on using the RCA Music Synthesizer. Most others took advantage of other tape processing techniques found in the studio and not controlled by the RCA Mark II. It took him quite a long time to work out all of the details using the synthesizer and his meticulous rules for composing serially. On the other hand, the programmability of the instrument made it much more possible to control all the parameters of the sound being created electronically rather than by human musicians. This work is a prime example of this kind of work. 10:41
Tod Dockstader, “Drone” (1962) from Drone; Two Fragments From Apocalypse; Water Music (1966 Owl Records). Self-produced album by independent American composer Dockstader. This came along at an interesting period for American elecgtronic music, sandwiched between the institutional studio work being done at various universities and the era of the independent musician working with a synthesizer. Dockstader used his own studio and his own devices to make this imaginative music. This was one of a series of four albums featuring Dockstader’s music that were released on Owl in the 1966-67 timeframe. They have all been reissued in one form or another. Here is what Dockstader himself wrote about this piece: “Drone, like many of my other works, began life as a single sound; in this case, the sound of racing cars. But, unlike the others, the germinal sound is no longer in the piece. It's been replaced by another a guitar. I found in composing the work that the cars didn't go anywhere, except, seemingly, in circles. The sound of them that had interested me originally was a high to low glissando the Doppler effect. In making equivalents of this sound, I found guitar glissandos could be bent into figures the cars couldn't. . . . After the guitar had established itself as the base line of the piece, I began matching its sound with a muted sawtooth oscillator (again, concrete and electronic music: the guitar being a mechanical source of sound, the oscillator an electronic source). This instrument had a timbre similar to the guitar, with the addition of soft attack, sustained tones, and frequencies beyond the range of the guitar. . . . The effect of the guitar and the oscillator, working together, was to produce a kind of drone, with variations something like the procedure of classical Japanese music, but with more violence. Alternating violence with loneliness, hectic motion with static stillness, was the aim of the original piece; and this is still in Drone, but in the process, the means changed so much that, of all my pieces, it is the only one I can't remember all the sounds of, so it continues to surprise me when I play it.” (From the original liner notes by Dockstader). 13:24
Wendy Carlos, “Dialogs for Piano and Two Loudspeakers” (1963) from Electronic Music (1965 Turnabout). This is an early recording of Wendy, pre-Switched-on Bach, from her days as a composer and technician. In this work, Carlos tackles the task of combining synthesized sounds with those of acoustic instruments, in this case the piano. It’s funny that after you listen to this you could swear that there were instruments other than the piano used, so deft was her blending of electronic sounds with even just a single instrument. 4:00
Gordon Mumma, “Music from the Venezia Space Theater” (1963-64) (1966 Advance). Mono recording from the original release on Advance. Composed at the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This was the studio created by Mumma and fellow composer Robert Ashley to produce their electronic tape works for Milton Cohen’s Space Theater on Ann Arbor, which this piece tries to reproduce. The original was a quad magnetic tape. It was premiered at the 27th Venezia Bianale, Venice, Italy on September 11, 1964 and comprised the ONCE group with dancers. 11:58
Jean Eichelberger Ivey, “Pinball” (1965) from Electronic Music (1967 Folkways). Realized at the Electronic Music Studio of Brandeis University. This work was produced in the Brandeis University Electronic Music Studio and was her first work of electroacoustic music. In 1964 she began a Doctor of Musical Arts program in composition, including studies in electronic music, at the University of Toronto and completed the degree in 1972. Ivey founded the Peabody Electronic Music Studio in 1967 and taught composition and electronic music at the Peabody Conservatory of Music until her retirement in 1997. Ivey was a respected composer who also sought more recognition for women in the field. In 1968, she was the only woman composer represented at the Eastman-Rochester American Music Festival. Her work in electronic music and other music was characteristic of her general attitude about modern composing, “I consider all the musical resources of the past and present as being at the composer’s disposal, but always in the service of the effective communication of humanistic ideas and intuitive emotion.” 6:12
Pauline Oliveros, “Bye Bye Butterfly” (1965) from New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media (1977 1750 Arch Records). This was composed at the San Francisco Tape Music Center where so many west coast composers first found their footing: Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender all did work there around this time. Oliveros was experimenting with the use of tape delay in a number of works, of which “Bye Bye Butterfly” is a great example. 8:05
Gordon Mumma, “The Dresden Interleaf 13 February 1945” (1965) from Dresden / Venezia / Megaton (1979 Lovely Music). Composed at the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music (Ann Arbor, Michigan). Remixed at The Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College (Oakland, California). This tape piece was premiered at the sixth annual ONCE Festival in Ann Arbor where Mumma configured an array of sixteen “mini speakers” to surround the audience and project the 4-channel mix. The middle section of the piece contains the “harrowing roar of live, alcohol-burning model airplane engines.” (Mumma) This anti-war piece was presented in the 20th anniversary of the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden near the end of World War II. 12:14
Kenneth Gaburo, “Lemon Drops (Tape Alone)” (1965) from Electronic Music from the University of Illinois (1967 Heliodor). From Gaburo: “Lemon Drops” is one of a group of five tape compositions made during 1964-5 referencing the work of Harry Partch. All are concerned with aspects of timbre (e.g., mixing concrete and electronically generated sound); with nuance (e.g., extending the expressive range of concrete sound through machine manipulation, and reducing machine rigidity through flexible compositional techniques); and with counterpoint (e.g., stereo as a contrapuntal system).”(see). 2:52
Steve Reich, “Melodica” (1966) from Music From Mills (1986 Mills College). This is one of Reich’s lesser-known phased loop compositions from the 1960s. It is “composed of one tape loop gradually going out of phase with itself, first in two voices and then in four.” This was Reich’s last work for tape before he transitioned to writing instrumental music. 10:43
Pril Smiley, “Eclipse” (1967) from Electronic Music, Vol. IV (1969 Turnabout). The selections are works by the winners of the First International Electronic Music Competition - Dartmouth College, April 5, 1968. The competition was judged by composers Milton Babbitt, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and George Balch Wilson. The winner was awarded a $500 prize. Pril Smiley was 1st finalist and realized “Eclipse” at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Smiley had this to say about the work: “Eclipse” was originally composed for four separate tracks, the composer having worked with a specifically-structured antiphonal distribution of compositional material to be heard from four corners of a room or other appropriate space. Some sections of “Eclipse” are semi-improvisatory; by and large, the piece was worked out via many sketches and preliminary experiments on tape: all elements such as rhythm, timbre, loudness, and duration of each note were very precisely determined and controlled. In many ways, the structure of “Eclipse” is related to the composer’s use of timbre. There are basically two kinds of sounds in the piece: the low, sustained gong-like sounds (always either increasing or decreasing in loudness) and the short more percussive sounds, which can be thought of as metallic, glassy, or wooden in character. These different kinds of timbres are usually used in contrast to one another, sometimes being set end to end so that one kind of sound interrupts another, and sometimes being dovetailed so that one timbre appears to emerge out of or from beneath another. Eighty-five percent of the sounds are electronic in origin; the non-electronic sounds are mainly pre-recorded percussion sounds–but subsequently electronically modified so that they are not always recognizable.” (From the original liner notes by Smiley.) 7:56
Olly W. Wilson, “Cetus” (1967) from Electronic Music, Vol. IV (1969 Turnabout). The selections are works by the winners of the First International Electronic Music Competition - Dartmouth College, April 5, 1968. The competition was judged by composers Milton Babbitt, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and George Balch Wilson. The winner was awarded a $500 prize. Olly W. Wilson was the competition Winner with “Cetus.” It was realized in the studio for Experimental Music of the University of Illinois. Olly Wilson wrote about the work: “the compositional process characteristic of the “classical tape studio” (the mutation of a few basic electronic signals by means of filters, signal modifiers, and recording processes) was employed in the realization of this work and was enhanced by means of certain instruments which permit improvisation by synthesized sound. Cetus contains passages which were improvised by the composer as well as sections realized by classical tape studio procedures. The master of this work was prepared on a two channel tape. Under the ideal circumstances it should be performed with multiple speakers surrounding the auditor.” (Olly Wilson. The Avant Garde Project at UBUWEB, AGP129 – US Electronic Music VIII | Dartmouth College Competition (1968-70). 9:18
Alice Shields, “The Transformation of Ani” (1970) from Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center Tenth Anniversary Celebration (1971 CRI). Composed at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Alice Shields explained, “The text of “The Transformation of Ani” is taken from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, as translated into English by E. A. Budge. Most sounds in the piece were made from my own voice, speaking and singing the words of the text. Each letter of the English translation was assigned a pitch, and each hieroglyph of the Egyptian was given a particular sound or short phrase, of mostly indefinite pitch. Each series, the one derived from the English translation, and the one derived from the original hieroglyphs, was then improvised upon to create material I thought appropriate to the way in which I wanted to develop the meaning of the text, which I divided into three sections.” (see). 8:59
Opening background music: John Cage, Fontana Mix (1958) (1966 Turnabout). This tape work was composed in 1958 and I believe this is the only recorded version by Cage himself as well as the only Cage version presented as a work not in accompaniment of another work. An earlier recording, from the Time label in 1962, feature the tape piece combined with another Cage work, “Aria.” This version for 2 tapes was prepared b Cage in February 1959 at the Studio di Fonologia in Milan, with technical assistance from Mario Zuccheri. From the Cage Database website. “This is a composition indeterminate of its performance, and was derived from notation CC from Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra. The score consists of 10 sheets of paper and 12 transparencies. The sheets of paper contain drawings of 6 differentiated (as to thickness and texture) curved lines. 10 of these transparencies have randomly distributed points (the number of points on the transparencies being 7, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22, 26, 29, and 30). Another transparency has a grid, measuring 2 x 10 inches, and the last one contains a straight line (10 3/4 inch). By superimposing these transparencies, the player creates a structure from which a performance score can be made: one of the transparencies with dots is placed over one of the sheets with curved lines. Over this one places the grid. A point enclosed in the grid is connected with a point outside, using the straight line transparency. Horizontal and vertical measurements of intersections of the straight line with the grid and the curved line create a time-bracket along with actions to be made.”
Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.
For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.

Women in Synthesis, Part 1: Managing Their Musical Identities

Episode 98
Women in Synthesis, Part 1: Managing their Musical Identities
Playlist
Daphne Oram, “Four Aspects” from Oramics (2007 Paradigm Discs). This piece was composed in 1960 after Oram left the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and was running her own start-up. Four Aspects uses the Oramics instrument that she invented. It demonstrated her interest in creating works that were longer than the short snippets of music that she had produced for radio and television themes. The piece was patiently crafted and is strikingly harmonic, exploring a rich tone field that lacked the herky-jerky nature of other tape music of the time. You will hear the development of musical chords and harmonic fields from monophonic tone generators that she combined during mixing, developing gradually shifting texture employing filtering and loops. 8:06
Daphne Oram, “Pulse Persephone” (1965) from Oramics (2007 Paradigm Discs). Composed, realized, and produced by Daphne Oram. This was produced for the Treasures of the Commonwealth exhibition at the Royal Academy of the Arts. 4:03
Daphne Oram, “Costain Suite” (1965) from Oramics (2007 Paradigm Discs). Composed, realized, and produced by Daphne Oram. Music for a film production, circa 1970. 13:17
Teresa Rampazzi, “Immagini Per Diana Baylon” side a (1972), from Immagini Per Diana Baylon (2016 Die Schachtel). Music realized using analogue equipment, Teresa Rampazzi. One of her three known soundtracks for art installations. The analog work she completed at her Nuove Proposte Sonore (NPS) studio had striking parallels to the work of Daphne Oram in the UK. This piece was intended to be looped for 180 minutes while visitors perused an exhibit of abstract sculptures by Diana Baylon. 16:15
Teresa Rampazzi, “With the Light Pen” (1976) from Musica Endoscopica (2008 Die Schachtel). Composed and realized by Teresa Rampazzi at the Centro di Calcolo di Ateneo, Università di Padova. This was the first work realized with the Interactive Computer Music System (ICMS), in real-time. “The timbre, made by additive synthesis, adding frequencies in algebraic sequence, was sometimes acoustically harsh. On the other hand train pulses with regular rhythms were sweetened by long harmonic, dissolving tails.” (Rampazzi). 8:43
Teresa Rampazzi, “Atmen Noch”(1980) from Musica Endoscopica (2008 Die Schachtel). Stereophonic version (quadraphonic original) realized at the CSC (Centro di Sonologia Computazionale dell'Università di Padova). Composed in 1980 at the CSC Computer Music Center in Padova. Winner of the second prize at the VIII Concours International de Musique Électroacoustique, Bourges. Based on the mathematical analysis of “intersection sets, the elements of which were timbres. It was preceded by five months of research on timbres that were obtained from multitudinous ratios between the carrier and the modulating signals and inverted relationships with the ICMS program by Graziato Tisato.” (Rampazzi). This work will not immediately strike you as computer music, which is part of its beauty and uniqueness for all time. 15:16
Ruth White, “Wings Clipped (Too Many External Involvements / Flight Stopped” from 7 Trumps From The Tarot Cards And Pinions (1969 Limelight). Produced and realized by Ruth White. Clavichord, Harpsichord, Organ, Piano, Moog Modular Synthesizer, tape operations, Ruth White. 6:04
Ruth White, “Wanting Wings (Limited Capacity / No Flight Possible” from 7 Trumps From The Tarot Cards And Pinions (1969 Limelight). Produced and realized by Ruth White. Clavichord, Harpsichord, Organ, Piano, Moog Modular Synthesizer, tape operations, Ruth White. 3:42
Ruth White, “Love Gives Wings (With Wings)” from 7 Trumps From The Tarot Cards And Pinions (1969 Limelight). Produced and realized by Ruth White. Clavichord, Harpsichord, Organ, Piano, Moog Modular Synthesizer, tape operations, Ruth White. 8:48
Opening background music: Daphe Oram, “Introduction” and “Power Tools” from Oramics (2007 Paradigm Discs). Voice and electronic realization, Daphne Oram. Ruth White, “The Litanies Of Satan” from Flowers of Evil (1969 Limelight). Ruth White, all instruments including the Moog Modular Synthesizer. Realized by Ruth White. 6:56
Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.
For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.

Crosscurrents in Elektronische Musik of Germany

Episode 97
Crosscurrents in Elektronische Musik from Germany
Playlist
Josef Anton Riedl, “Studie 1b, 1a” (1951) from Zeitgenössische Musik In Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 3 (1950-1960) (1982 Deutscher Musikrat). Early example of German tape composition, categorized as musique concrète as it includes more than purely electronic sounds, but the edited and processed sounds of human voices and instruments (a harp, string bass) as well. But it’s the vocal utterances and the way they were edited for effect with unpredictable silences that makes this work stand out for me. Riedl completed this after visiting and hearing musique concrète in France. After that, the Cologne studio came into existence and provided a new means to create electronic music not with microphones, but directly through electronic signals on tape. Riedl switched from making musique concrète to elektronische music. Realization by Riedl in association with the Studio für elektronische Musik des Westdeutschen Rundfunks, Köln (WDR, West German Radio in Cologne). 5:34
Karlheinz Stockhausen, “Étude” (1952) from Elektronische Musik 1952-1960 (1991 Stockhausen Verlag). Realized by Stockhausen during a stay to ORTF, Paris, where he learned the basics of musique concrète, which is how he categorized the piece before working purely electronic music at WDR. 2:56
Karlheinz Stockhausen, “Studie I” (1953) from Elektronische Musik 1952-1960 (1991 Stockhausen Verlag). One of two purely electronic “studies” composed by Stockhausen at the WDR. His serialist approach dictated all aspects of the sound and he composed the works using a graphical approach to depict the shapes and values of the volume, duration, pitch, and timbres of the sound. “Studie I” is among the first works of electronic music composed entirely for sine waves. Although the means for creating “Studie I” are readily available today using computer synthesis, its composition in 1953 required much manual intervention and ingenuity by Stockhausen. “Studie I” was a completely serialized composition in which the composer applied the mathematical analysis of tones and timbres to the way in which he generated, shaped, and edited sounds for a tape composition. With electronic tone generators and tape recorders at his disposal, Stockhausen felt that it was possible to “compose, in the true sense of the word, the timbres in music,” allowing him to synthesize from base elements such as sine waves the structure of a composition, its tone selection, and all of the audio dynamics such as amplitude, attack, duration, and the timbre of the sounds. He approached the composition by first recording a series of electronic tones that met certain pitch and timbral requirements that he prescribed and then using serial techniques to devise an organizational plan that determined the order and duration of the sounds as he edited them together. 9:23
Karlheinz Stockhausen, “Studie II” (1954) from Elektronische Musik 1952-1960 (1991 Stockhausen Verlag). The second of two purely electronic “studies” composed by Stockhausen at the WDR. For “Studie II,” Stockhausen extended his experiments with sine waves begun on “Studie I” by exploring the use of attack and decay characteristics as elements of composition. “Studie II” is one of the first post-war tape works to have a written score, albeit a graphic one in which overlapping translucent geometric shapes are used to denote the occurrence of a tone of a given amplitude in a given frequency with specific attack and decay characteristics. For “Studie II,” Stockhausen defined a set of frequencies based on the same ratio, resulting in an 81-tone scale of tones divided into one-tenth octave steps. The loudness and attack characteristics of the tones were divided into five stages. Tones based on such equal divisions of the frequency spectrum proved to be more harmonic when mixed. Stockhausen recorded short passages of the given tones and spliced them together in a loop that could be played repeatedly. These loops were then played through a reverberation system and then recorded to provide the final material with which the composer worked. Stockhausen’s extensive use of reverberation added body and a noise quality to the sounds that embellished the raw sine tones. Using serial techniques to determine how to edit the material together, Stockhausen varied the attack characteristics and then also played some of the sounds backward to create a ramping decay that would abruptly cut off. His application of attack and decay characteristics in five prescribed stages of amplitude resulted in passages that were highly articulated by cascading, irregular rhythms. 2:59
Herbert Eimert, “Fünf Stücke” (1955/56) from Zeitgenössische Musik In Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 3 (1950-1960) (1982 Deutscher Musikrat). Realization, H. Schütz, Herbert Eimert. Produced in the WDR studios, Cologne. Like Pierre Schaffer in France, Eimert had a background in creating music and sound for radio. He was one of the founding directors of the Cologne studio. Of the works included here, this one is a good example of his serialist approach that incorporated constantly changing combinations of defined sounds. 12:31
Gottfried Michael Koenig, “Klangfiguren II” (1955/56) from Zeitgenössische Musik In Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 3 (1950-1960) (1982 Deutscher Musikrat). Realization by Gottfried Michael Koenig. Produced in the WDR studios,Cologne. Koenig was with the WDR Studio for ten years from 1954 to 1964. There he experienced the fundamental aspects of creating works with electronic sound devices, most of which had never been intended to make music. His work led him directly to computer music composition in the 1960s. In “Klangfiguren II” “every sound goes through several working steps, and both the original sound and the various intermediate results of the transformation process are heard.” 10:13
Karlheinz Stockhausen, “Gesang Der Jünglinge” (1955/56) from Zeitgenössische Musik In Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 3 (1950-1960) (1982 Deutscher Musikrat). Realization by Gottfried Michael Koenig, Karlheinz Stockhausen. Produced in the WDR studios, Cologne. “Gesang der Jünglinge” was begun three years before Varèse completed “Poème électronique.” Like the Varèse work, “Gesang der Jünglinge” was produced using a host of electronic music production techniques cultivated earlier at the WDR studios. Stockhausen’s approach was to fuse the sonic components of recorded passages of a youth choir with equivalent tones and timbres produced electronically. Stylistically, Stockhausen avoided the choppy, sharply contrasting effects that were so evident in many early magnetic tape pieces, instead weaving his sound sources together into a single, fluid musical element. He practiced his newly formed principles of electronic music composition, setting forth a plan that required the modification of the “speed, length, loudness, softness, density and complexity, the width and narrowness of pitch intervals and differentiations of timbre” in an exact and precise manner. The piece was painstakingly crafted from a visual score specifying the placement of sounds and their dynamic elements over the course of the work 13:03
Hermann Heiss, “Elektronische Komposition 1” (1956) from Zeitgenössische Musik In Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 3 (1950-1960) (1982 Deutscher Musikrat). Realization by H. Schütz, Hermann Heiss. Produced in the WDR studios,Cologne.One does not often hear the name Heiss in relation to electronic music, although he went on the direct the Studio für Elektronische Komposition at the Kranichstein Music Instutute. At the time of this composition, he was focused on adapting electronic sounds to serial composition, for which he thought they were ideally suited. 5:11
Herbert Eimert, “Selection I” (1959) from Panorama Électronique: Electronic Experimental Music (1968 Limelight). For electronic and concrete sounds. 10:03
Herbert Eimert, “Sechs Studien” from Epitaph Für Aikichi Kuboyama (2005 Creel Pone). “Sechs Studien” was composed 1962 & realized by Leopold von Knobelsdorff and released in 1962 on the Wergo label. For electronic and concrete sounds. Interestingly, Eimert was also branching out with the addition of keyboards and what sounds like a theremin (although it might have been an Ondes martenot). The WDR studio had a keyboard instrument built by Harald Bode in 1953, the Melochord, along with a a Monochard made by Friedrich Trautwein. 17:48
Karlheinz Stockhausen, “Kontakte”(1959-60), parts 1 and 2 from the album Gesang Der Jünglinge / Kontakte (1962 Deutsche Grammophon). Composed and realized by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Produced in the WDR studios,Cologne. This work was adapted for phonograph from a 4-track original tape composition. Given that the album could only hold about 25 minutes of sound per side, they divided this piece in two and presented it as parts 1 and 2. I’ve joined the two parts together for the podcast. Note the experiments in sound movement between the speakers, a facet of electronic music about which Stockhausen was captivated. Around this time, he began using contraptions invented for the Cologne studio that would, for example, rotate a loudspeaker in space from which fixed microphones could pick up fluctuating signals based on the frequency of the speaker rotation. He would eventually use this same technique with live performances and 4 or more speakers to enable the sound to, in effect, rotate around the audience. By the time her wrote the liner notes for this recoding in 1962, he had “publicly performed” the work “more than thirty times in all large European cities as well as in Canada, the USA, and Brazil, and broadcast by most radio stations in both versions” (stereo and radio mixes). Stockhausen’s sound palette had also grown more sophisticated by this point and contained many seemingly organic elements that stood out from the earlier, purely electronic music output of the WDR. It is also one of his last electronic works to exploit “total serialism” in which he painstakingly composed around the parameters of sound to “bring all properties” such as timbre, pitch, intensity, and duration under a single control." In 1981, music scholar David Toop looked back on this work and noted that Kontakte was really the culmination of Stockhausen’s attempts to apply serialism technique to electronic music and succeeded only at the broadest level. Many other composers by this time had discovered that the fundamental nature of electronic music was to deal with the basic elements of sound and calling it serialism seemed quite meaningless. After all, the structures and tonalities were only as interesting as the listener found them to be. In his case, Stockhausen’s uniquely vibrant and organic music, tinged with introspection and shocking contrasts, provided an emotional impact that serialism had never intended. Don’t miss hearing the sequence beginning around 17 minutes in that presents a sequence of pulsing electronic tones that are sped up, at first, to sound like a smooth waveform but then lowered in frequency so that you hear the component particles and beats that comprise the faster tone. This was quite a trick using tape manipulation, probably requiring several playbacks of the sound at different speeds and then some eloquent mixing to join the pieces together. 34:33
Mauricio Kagel, “Transicion I” (1958) from Panorama Électronique: Electronic Experimental Music (1968 Limelight). This is one of several reissues of the work that was originally released by Philips (who owned Limelight, its US label). I have several versions of this work and this was in the best shape. Realization by Gottfried Michael Koenig, Mauricio Kagel. Produced in the WDR studios, Cologne. “Transicion I” for electronic sounds (1958) was composed when Kagel first traveled to Cologne, where he remained for the rest of his career. Clearly influenced by the Cologne school of serialism, “Transicion II” was characterized by an exploration of the many aural possibilities of his sound sources set to an arrhythmic, seemingly formless sequence of sonic exclamations without pattern. These works were similar in effect to some of Stockhausen’s instrumental pieces of the same period, but radically different from the German’s evolving approach to methodical tape composition. 12:49
Opening background music: Four short sections of “Kontakte” (1959-60) from Elektronische Musik 1952-1960 (1991 Stockhausen Verlag). These are not presented in their original order, but comprise Struktur parts 11, 12, 13a and 13b. the CD release on Stockhausen Verlag presents “Kontakte” not a one uniform track but as a set of parts originally created and edited together by Stockhausen.
Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.
For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.

Crosscurrents of Musique Concrète

Episode 96
Crosscurrents of Musique Concrète
Playlist
Pierre Henry, “Final Du Concerto Des Ambiguités (Final Of The Ambiguities Concerto)” (1950) from 1er Panorama De Musique Concrète (1956 Ducretet Thomson). Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Pierre Henry. Work realized in the studios of Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). Published with funds supplied by Conseil international de la musique (UNESCO). 3:15
Pierre Henry, “Expressionisme (1951) Musique Sans Titre – 5e et 6e Mouvements (Untitled Music – 5th and 6th Movements)” from 1er Panorama De Musique Concrète (1956 Ducretet Thomson). Early piece of musique concrete during a time of transition at the RTF, when the composers were moving from using turntables and disc lathes to magnetic tape as a composition medium. This work has evidence of both. Composition, sound editing, and audio production by Pierre Henry. Work realized in the studios of Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). Published with funds supplied by Conseil international de la musique (UNESCO). 2:59
Philippe Arthuys, “Boîte À Musique (Musical Box)” from 1er Panorama De Musique Concrète (1956 Ducretet Thomson). Composition, sound editing, and audio production by Philippe Arthuys. Work realized in the studios of Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). Published with funds supplied by Conseil international de la musique (UNESCO). 2:53
Mireille Kyrou, “Étude I” (1960) from Musique Concrète (1964 Philips). Composition, sound editing, and audio production by Mireille Kyrou. Realized by the "Groupe de recherches musicales du Service de la recherche de la radiodiffusion-télévision française", directed by Pierre Schaeffer. Kyrou is the rare example of a woman composer using the French studio. This is her only work released on record. However, according to Hugh Davies’ International Electronic Music Catalog, I find several other compositions dating from this period that, hopefully, will one day be released by the GRM. There were three additional works from 1960-61, all done for film, totaling in time to about 31 minutes. 5:09
Henri Pousseur, “Trois Visages De Liège” (1961) from Early Experimental Electronic Music 1954-1961 (2018 Fantôme Phonographique). This is a reissued version of Pousseur’s work from 1961 and originally released on a Columbia disc in 1967. But this version is several minutes longer than that release. This album also features a bonus track of sound elements used for the work before being fully composed. Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Henri Pousseur. Pousseur was Belgian and worked in the Studio de Musique Electronique de Bruxelles in a musique concrète style. 20:32
Bernard Parmegiani, “Danse” (1961) from Musique Concrète (1969 Candide). Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Bernard Parmegiani. Compositions realized in the studios of Groupe de Recherches Musicales, O.R.T.F., Paris, France. Parmegiani was one of the GRM’s most prolific composers, working on individual works but also numerous pieces for stage, dance, and, most importantly film and commercials, producing early music videos, soundtracks, and commercials for companies like Renault. His music was inventive and imaginative, and he became a chief craftsman of electronic music for decades. Until 1992, he produced most of his music at GRM, but was frequently on commission to work at institutions in other countries. In 1992, Parmegiani left the GRM and set up his own studio in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. 4:08
Luc Ferrari, “Tautologos I” (1961) from Musique Expérimentale 2 (1972 BAM) Recordings realized in the studios of Gravesano (directed by Hermann Scherchen). Reissue of 1964 release. Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Luc Ferrari. 4:19
Philippe Carson, “Turmac” (1961) from Musique Expérimentale 2 (1972 BAM) Recordings made by Le Groupe de Recherches Musicales du Service de la Recherche de l'O.R.T.F. Reissue of 1964 release. Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Philippe Carson. 9:43
Luc Ferrari, “Tête Et Queue Du Dragon” (Second Version) (1962) from Musique Concrète (1969 Candide). Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Luc Ferrari. Compositions realized in the studios of Groupe de Recherches Musicales, O.R.T.F., Paris, France. 9:07
François-Bernard Mâche, “Terre De Feu (Second Version)” (1963) from Musique Concrète (1969 Candide). Composition, tape editing, and audio production by François-Bernard Mâche. Compositions realized in the studios of Groupe de Recherches Musicales, O.R.T.F., Paris, France. 6:52
François Bayle, “Vapeur” (1964) from Musique Expérimentale 2 (1972 BAM) Recordings made by Le Groupe de Recherches Musicales du Service de la Recherche de l'O.R.T.F. Reissue of 1964 release. Composition, tape editing, and audio production by François Bayle. 4:44
Bernard Parmegiani, “Récession” (1966) from Bernard Parmegiani – Mémoire Magnétique, Vol 1. (Compilation De Bandes Magnétiques Inédites (1966-1990) (2018 Transversales Disques). Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Bernard Parmegiani. First release of this track, created for theatre. 2:25
Bernard Parmegiani, “La Ville En Haut De La Colline II” (1968) from Bernard Parmegiani – Mémoire Magnétique, Vol 1. (Compilation De Bandes Magnétiques Inédites (1966-1990) (2018 Transversales Disques). Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Bernard Parmegiani. First release of this track, created for film. 1:30
Bernard Parmegiani, “Outremer” (1968) and “Trois Canons En Hommage À Galilée”(1969) from Arlette Sibon-Simonovitch Avec Le Concours De Sylvio Gualda Œuvres De: Parmegiani, Mestres-Quadreny – Espaces Sonores N°1 (1975 La Voix De Son Maître). Ondes Martenot, Arlette Sibon-Simonovitch. Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Bernard Parmegiani. Work for Ondes Martenot and four tracks of magnetic tape. 21:02
Bernard Parmegiani, “Je Tu Elles” (1969) from Bernard Parmegiani – Mémoire Magnétique, Vol 1. (Compilation De Bandes Magnétiques Inédites (1966-1990) (2018 Transversales Disques). Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Bernard Parmegiani. First release of this track, created for film. 2:59
Roger Roger, “Le Type Beurré” from Musique Idiote (1970 Neuilly). Another experiment with the Moog Synthesizer by composer Roger Roger, maker of broadcast library music. 1:38
Roger Roger, “La Nana Siphonée” from Musique Idiote (1970 Neuilly). Enter the Moog Synthesizer. Here are some early works for Moog by composer Roger Roger, maker of broadcast library music. 1:39
Opening background music: Henri Pousseur, “Éléments De Trois Visages De Liège” from Early Experimental Electronic Music 1954-1961 (2018 Fantôme Phonographique). Composition, tape editing, and audio production by Henry Pousseur. 3:10
 
Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.
For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.

Early Intersections of Rock and Electronic Music

Episode 95
Early Intersections of Rock and Electronic Music
 
Playlist
Frank Zappa, The Mothers of Invention, “The Return of the Son Of Monster Magnet (Unfinished Ballet In Two Tableaus)” from Freak Out! (1966 Verve). Bass, Guitarrón, Soprano Vocals, Roy Estrada; Drums, Jimmy Carl Black; Guitar, Vocals, Arranged By, Written-By, Leader, Musical Director, Frank Zappa; Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Elliot Ingber; Vocals, Harmonica, Tambourine, Finger Cymbals, Ray Collins. Having been gifted a copy of the Mother’s album Freak Out! In 1966, it was apparently this song that stuck in Paul McCartney’s mind, inspiring the “Carnival of Light” recording to follow. 12:15
The Beatles, “Carnival of Light” an unreleased track that was commissioned by the Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, an event held at the Roundhouse in London on January 28 and February 4, 1967. Recorded during a session for the song "Penny Lane" in January 1967. Working with the recording studio as a creative tool, this was a project brought to band by Paul McCartney who had been asked by the festival sponsors to create a tape to be featured at the event. It was reported later that McCartney explained the exercise to his bandmates by saying, "This is a bit indulgent, but would you mind giving me 10 minutes? I've been asked to do this thing. All I want you to do is just wander round all of the stuff and bang it, shout, play it." The result was this sound piece. The Beatles were already conditioned for turning out spectacular sound effects in the studio. This was before the Moog Synthesizer came to Abbey Road. Nonetheless, they had access to all manner of guitar effects, echo, reverb, a Mellotron, electronic piano, organ, Lesley speakers and other devices with which to improvise. 13:08
The Riders Of The Mark, “The Electronic Insides And Metal Complexion That Make Up Herr Doktor Krieg” from The Electronic Insides And Metal Complexion That Make Up Herr Doktor Krieg/Gotta Find Somebody (1967 20th Century Fox). I wish I knew more about this band, but I don’t. They had this one single. It has sometimes been included on compilation of psychedelia. Rock music, tape reversal, tape echo, fuzz tones, guitars. 2:13
Pink Floyd, “Interstellar Overdrive” from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967 Columbia). UK release of the formidable Pink Floyd, then making an impact with their first LP. No synthesizers, but there were electronic rock instruments galore and some imaginative stereo imaging, a benefit of working with tape in those days. Bass Guitar, Vocals, Roger Waters; Lead Guitar, Vocals, Syd Barrett; Drums, Nicky Mason; Piano, Organ, Rick Wright. 9:40
Bernard Parmegiani, “Pop’eclectic (1968)” from JazzEx (1999 Plat Lunch). Composed, produced, edited by Bernard Parmegiani. Parmegiani was one of the lesser-known composers associated with the French musique concrete school, although he was no less prolific in many genres, including electronic music for commercials. He was adept at experimenting across genres, providing musique concrete vividness to works for jazz and rock music. I always find his work to be refreshing and uncluttered by musical cliches. 11:03
(Frank Zappa) The Mothers of Invention, “Are You Hung Up?” from We're Only In It For The Money (1968 Verve). Arranged By, Composed By, Conductor, Concept By Conceived, Directed By Executed, Producer, Frank Zappa; Bass, Vocals, Other Asthma, Roy Estrada; Drums, Trumpet, Vocals, Other Indian Of The Group, Jimmy Carl Black; Drums, Vocals, Other Yak & Black Lace Underwear, Billy Mundi; Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Edited By, Other Weirdness, Frank Zappa; Piano, Woodwind, Other Wholesome, Ian Underwood; Saxophone, Other Weirdness & Teen Appeal, Euclid James Motorhead Sherwood; Sounds Snorks, Dick Barber; Voice Creepy Whispering, Engineer, Gary Kellgren; Voice Telephone, Suzy Creamcheese; Woodwind, “Mumbled Weirdness,” Bunk Gardner. 1:30
Silver Apples, “Velvet Cave” from Silver Apples (1968 Kapp). Composed and Arranged by, Dan Taylor, Simeon; Percussion, Dan Taylor; The Simeon (oscillators, filters), Simeon; Vocals, Dan Taylor, Simeon. “INSTRUCTIONS: Play Twice Before Listening.” This two-man group used a genius combination of drums and oscillators, a match made in heaven. 3:27
(Frank Zappa) The Mothers of Invention, “Nasal Retentive Calliope Music” from We're Only In It For The Money (1968 Verve). Arranged By, Composed By, Conductor, Concept By Conceived, Directed By Executed, Producer, Frank Zappa; Bass, Vocals, Other Asthma, Roy Estrada; Drums, Trumpet, Vocals, Other Indian Of The Group, Jimmy Carl Black; Drums, Vocals, Other Yak & Black Lace Underwear, Billy Mundi; Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Edited By, Other Weirdness, Frank Zappa; Piano, Woodwind, Other Wholesome, Ian Underwood; Saxophone, Other Weirdness & Teen Appeal, Euclid James Motorhead Sherwood; Sounds Snorks, Dick Barber; Voice Creepy Whispering, Engineer, Gary Kellgren; Voice Telephone, Suzy Creamcheese; Woodwind, “Mumbled Weirdness,” Bunk Gardner. 2:03
The United States of America, “The American Metaphysical Circus” from The United States of America (1968 Columbia). While the entire psychedelic scene in America was adding tape manipulation, fuzz tones, and echo to their recordings, The United States of America brought a blend of rock musicianship and serious tape collage work to the fore. The tape effects in their music were not the usual brief hooks or the sake of novelty, but fully composed blocks of electronic and found sounds integrated in the core of their tunes. Electric Bass, Rand Forbes; Keyboards, Electronics, Organ, Piano, Arranged, Electric Harpsichord, Calliope, Joseph Byrd; Lead Vocals, Dorothy Moskowitz; Organ, Piano, Calliope, Ed Bogas; Percussion, Drums Electric Drums, Craig Woodson; Producer, David Rubinson; Violin Electric Violin, Ring Modulator, Gordon Marron. 5:07
The United States of America, “Hard Coming Love” from The United States of America (1968 Columbia). Electric Bass, Rand Forbes; Keyboards, Electronics, Organ, Piano, Arranged, Electric Harpsichord, Calliope, Joseph Byrd; Lead Vocals, Dorothy Moskowitz; Organ, Piano, Calliope, Ed Bogas; Percussion, Drums Electric Drums, Craig Woodson; Producer, David Rubinson; Violin Electric Violin, Ring Modulator, Gordon Marron. No synthesizers as such, but Tom Oberheim built ring modulators and other devices for them. 4:48
Bernard Parmegiani, “Du Pop À L'âne (1969)” from JazzEx (1999 Plat Lunch). Composed, produced, edited by Bernard Parmegiani. Of special interest on this track is a sampled chunk of a song by the Doors that appears about 6 minutes in, altered and accompanied by editing and effects. This use of sampling speaks to the liberties that musique concrete musicians were taking with found materials. 10:14
Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier, “Prologue,” “Psyché Rock,” “Jéricho Jerk,” and “Teen Tonic” from Mass For Today / The Green Queen (1969 Limelight). Compilation of earlier works first released in 1967. These four works were part of “Mass for Today,” an electronic rock ballet.” This is a decent collection, with selections from other Henry musique concrete works. The electronic sounds and tape effects seem somewhat heavy-handed now, but at that time, this was what one could do without a synthesizer. Henry was already a maestro of musique concrete by that time so it’s especially interesting to see what sounds he added without seeming trite or cliched. Réalisation Sonore, Pierre Henry; Written by, Michel Colombier, Pierre Henry. 9:54
Spooky Tooth and Pierre Henry, “Have Mercy” from Ceremony: An Electronic Mass (1969 Island). Bass Guitar, Andy Leigh; Composed by Gary Wright, Pierre Henry; Drums, Mike Kellie; Electronics, Realisation Sonore, Pierre Henry; Lead Guitar, Luther Grosvenor; Lead Vocals, Mike Harrison; Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Gary Wright. 8:10
The Free Pop Electronic Concept, “Pish! Pshaw!” from A New Exciting Experience (1969 Palette). From Brussels. Bass, James; Composed By, Recorded by Arsène Souffriau; Drums, Stu Martin; Electric Guitar, Jess; Organ, Scott Bradford; Percussion, Tumba, Vinagre. 4:47
The Free Pop Electronic Concept, “Cosmos Rhythms” from A New Exciting Experience (1969 Palette). From Brussels. Bass, James; Composed By, Recorded by Arsène Souffriau; Drums, Stu Martin; Electric Guitar, Jess; Organ, Scott Bradford; Percussion, Tumba, Vinagre. 3:01
Tommy James and the Shondells, “Cellophane Symphony” from Cellophane Symphony (1969 Roulette). This title track was a rare instrumental from this group normally associated with rock vocal hits. This is the only track in this podcast featuring the Moog Modular Synthesizer. There were certainly other examples of the Moog since it was first used in 1967, but I wanted to choose an example of how the synthesizer could be used by a rock band, rather than a pop artist such as Jean Jacques Perrey or Mort Garson. This is a terrific example that I would bet many of my listeners have never heard before. Tommy James, lead vocals, guitars, keyboards; Eddie Gray, lead guitar, backing vocals; Ronnie Rosman – keyboards, backing vocals; Mike Vale, bass guitar, backing vocals; Pete Lucia, drums, percussion, backing vocals. 9:37
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, “As Kind as Summer” from Vol. 3 - A Child's Guide To Good & Evil (1968 Reprise). American psychedelic rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1965, broke up in 1969. Three teens (brothers Dan and Shaun Harris and their friend Michael Lloyd) teamed up with 30-year old Bob Markley, who got them a record deal with Reprise. Each of their albums was most bizarre, combining hummable pop tunes and spacey production. I included this particular track because it starkly demonstrates the use of tape loops and sound reversal. 1:10
Toshi Ichiyanagi, The Flowers, "Electric Chant” and “The Flowers (内田裕也とザ・フラワーズ)” from Opera "From The Works Of Tadanori Yokoo (1969 The End Record). Composed by Toshi Ichiyanagi and performed by the Japanese rock group The Flowers: Bass, Takeshi Hashimoto; Drums, Joji Wada; Guitar, Vocals, Remi Aso; Percussion, Backing Vocals, Yuya Uchida; Steel Guitar, Katsuhiko Kobayashi; Vocals, Hiroshi Chiba, Kento Nakamura. I’m including two pieces from this opera from 1969. The first, “Electric Chant” is electronic and includes tape collage while the second, “The Flowers” was performed by the Japanese pop rock band The Flowers and is loaded with distortion, echo, feedback, and reverberation, transforming the simple rock format into a discourse in electronic sound. 5:17 & 7:18
Tim Buckley, “Starsailor” from Starsailor (1970 Bizarre). Engineer, Stan Agol; Vocals, Producer, Written by, Tim Buckley. According to Larry Beckett, Buckley’s chief lyricist and collaborator, who was there when they recorded this track, Buckley had a basic lyric track to which he recorded 18 additional vocals tracks on top of it. “He didn’t write it out as a classical musician does, but it was thoroughly composed.” From the standpoint of rock music, this was more akin to composing with tone clusters than chord progressions. 4:34
Opening background music: Luc Ferrari, “Dialogue Ordinaire Avec La Machine (1984)” from Dialogue Ordinaire Avec La Machine / Sexolidad (2019 Elica). Composed and performed by Luc Ferrari.
Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.
For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.

Electronic Drone Music

Episode 94
Electronic Drone Music
 
Playlist
Yves Klein, “Monotone-Silence Symphony” written in 1947. I could not find any recorded versions of this piece, so I produced this realization of my own to capture the feel and nature of this drone work. Klein conceived this as performance art in which an orchestra would only play a single note, continuously, for 20 minutes followed by another 20 minutes of silence. I’ve examined the score and can see that Klein also intended that the same note could be played in different octaves. The playing would have been staged so that one group of musicians could overlap another, both for reasons of fatigue but also to allow smooth transitions for the wind instruments because players would need to take a breath. My version includes electronic instruments for multiple parts, each part playing the same note, often in different octaves. The introduction of instrumental groups was planned in stages, each overlapping the previous grouping, gradually shortening in duration as the piece goes on.
La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, “31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM” from 31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM / 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta (1969 Edition X). Eponymous untitled album popularly known as "The Black Record" or "The Black Album" Mine is an original copy. The cover is black gloss print on matt black and very hard to read. Numbered edition limited to 2800 copies of which numbers 1-98 are dated and signed by the artists. This work “was recorded at the date and time indicated in the title, at Galerie Heiner Friedrich, München. The work “31 VII 69 10:26-10:49 PM” is a section of the longer work: Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery. Play this side at 33 1/3 rpm only.” Early work employing electronic drones. By the mid-sixties, Young and his partner Marian Zazeela were creating music for electronic drones as an extension of their group, The Theatre of Eternal Music. Using a Heathkit sine wave oscillator and later Moog modules as sources, they created drone pieces that employed “extended duration time signatures” and “long sustained tones, intervals, triads and chords to create the musical texture.” A reissue has now occurred on the label Super Viaduct.
Tony Conrad, “Process Four of Fantastic Glissando” from Fantastic Glissando (2006 Table of The Elements). Dating from 1969, this recording contains various versions of the same sound piece, each processed slightly differently. “Process Four” accumulates the processed applied to the previous three processes. The first glissando recording was made using a sine wave oscillator processed through pump counter with a stereo-phase glissando. Recorded December 12, 1969, on a Revox reel-to-reel tape recorder set at 3¾ ips. Conrad was in LaMonte Young’s circle of friends and performers and joined him on many productions of The Theatre of Eternal Music.
Teresa Rampazzi , “Duodeno normale” and “Duodeno Patologico” from Musica Endoscopica (1972). Here we have two short electronic works from this remarkable women composer that emphasize the drone. The pulsing tones and textures were played manually using audio oscillators. Music produced by the N.P.S. (Nuove Proposte Sonore) group for the documentary entitled "Gastroscopia" (Gastroscopy) realized in 1972 by Prof. Domenico Oselladore, University of Padova, in collaboration with Istituto De Angeli s.p.a., Milan. This documentary was presented at the Scientific Film Festival, Policlinico Universitario di Padova, 1972. “Duodeno Normale” begins with a drone consisting of two continuous tones: a low-pitched buzz from a sawtooth wave accompanied by a pulsating higher-pitched tone. The drone is joined at the 11-second mark by a high-pitched ringing tone played on a third oscillator. This ringing tone is repeated every 5–8 seconds and sustained for two or more seconds each time. The irregular timing of the tone suggests that Rampazzi was manually playing it by turning the dial of an oscillators. The ringing tone is sustained for the duration of the piece, creating a three-part drone. The drones fade out, beginning with the lower buzzing tone. “Duodeno Patologico” uses a similar process.
The Taj-Mahal Travelers, “The Taj-Mahal Travelers Between 6:20~6:46P.M.” from July 15, 1972 (1972 CBS/Sony). Released in Japan. Early album by the group founded by experimental electronic musician and violinist Takehisa Kosugi. Electronic Contrabass, Suntool, Harmonica, Performer Sheet Iron, Ryo Koike; Guitar Electronic Quiter, Percussion, Michihiro Kimura; Electronic Trumpet, Harmonica, Castanets, Seiji Nagai; Vibraphone, Santoor Suntool, Yukio Tsuchiya; Electronic Violin, Electronics, Radio Oscillators, Voice, Takehisa Kosugi; Vocals, Tokio Hasegawa. This album was recorded live at Sohgetsu Hall, Tokyo, Japan, July, 1972. Originally released using Sony's SQ quadraphonic system.
Yoshi Wada, “Earth Horns with Electronic Drone”(1974) from Earth Horns with Electronic Drone (2009 EM Records). Recorded at Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, February 24, 1974. Electronics, Liz Phillips; Pipehorn Players, Barbara Stewart, Garrett List, Jim Burton, Yoshi Wada; Electronic equipment designed by, Liz Phillips, Yoshi Wada; Pipehorns constructed by, composed by, recorded by, Yoshi Wada. Combining four of Wada's self-made "pipehorns" (constructed of plumbing materials, over three meters in length), with an electronic drone tuned to the electrical current of the performance space, this is a lost masterpiece of early drone/minimalism. The performance filled the space with complex overtones generated by the ever-shifting interplay of the breathing horns and the constant electronic drone.
Lou Reed, “Metal Machine Music” (1975 RCA). All music and electronics by Lou Reed. Inspired by LaMonte Young, this is what I would call a noise drone! Reed himself points to the influence of Young in his lean liner notes. "SPECIFICATIONS: No Synthesizers, No ARP, No Instruments?” Sony 1/2 track; Uher 1/4 track; Pioneer 1/4 track; 5 piggyback Marshall Tube Amps in series; Arbitor distortor (Jimi's); Marantz Preamps; Marantz Amps; Altec Voice of America Monitor Speakers; Sennheiser Headphones; Drone cognizance and harmonic possibilities vis a vis Lamont Young's Dream Music; Rock orientation, melodically disguised, i.e. drag; Avoidance of any type of atonality.; Electro-Voice high filter microphones; Fender Tremolo Unit; Sunn Tremolo Unit; Ring Modulator/Octave Relay Jump; Fender Dual Showman Bass Amp with Reverb Unit (Pre-Columbia) white.
Eliane Radigue, “Triptypch” Part 2” (1978). (2009 Important Records). Electronic Instrumentation: ARP 2500 modular synthesizer and analog, multitrack tape composition. The piece uses real-time ARP programming, tape loops, and recorded acoustic sounds. This piece is characteristic of Radigue’s fervent exploration of gradually changing layers of harmonically intersecting tones. It is the kind of drone work that can easily dip the listener into a pool of trance and is one of the composer’s many works grounded by her dedication to Tibetan Buddhism. Note the overall slowly evolving changes formed by overlapping sustained tones presented without any clearly articulated beginnings and endings.
John Cage, Gary Verkade, “Organ2/ASLSP” from The Works for Organ (2013 Mode). John Cage composed “Organ2/ASLSP” in 1987 for solo organ. This piece has been realized at a variety of lengths, from about 30 minutes, to 8 hours, and what is arguably the longest interpretation of music ever played, now 23 years into its projected run of 639-years being performed now in Halberstadt Cathedral, Germany where a special organ was created to perform the piece unattended until a chord change is called for. This work is not electronic, although the pipe organ may be thought of by some, including me, as the first synthesizer. Although I won’t be playing this work except in the background of this introduction, I needed to mention it because of its significance in the canon of drone music. “This composition consists, like Cage’s ASLSP, of 8 pieces. Unlike ASLSP, however, all pieces here should be played. Any of the 8 pieces may be repeated, and these repetitions may be played subsequent to any of the other pieces. The published score consists of a title page, brief instructions, and 4 leaves with music. Each page contains 2 pieces.”
Phill Niblock, “Guitar, too, for four—The Massed Version” from G2,44+/x2 (2002 Moikai). 24-track mix of guitar samples from Rafael Toral, Robert Poss, Susan Stenger, David First. Guitarists adding 2 live parts each to the 24 track mix version: Kevin Drumm, Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore, Robert Poss, Alan Licht. Niblock’s usually works with acoustic instruments, so this venture with electric guitar is somewhat unique in his body of work. He asks musicians to play parts that are first recorded and then reworked in the mixing and editing process, largely to eradicate pauses and silences so that the sounds can be blended without such interruptions.
Pauline Oliveros and Reynols, "Half a Dove in New York, Half a Dove in Buenos Aires" (1999) (2022 Smalltown Supersound). Reynols is an Argentinian experimental band that began in 1993 as Burt Reynols Ensamble. Band member Alan Courtis wrote to me, saying, “First of all, thanks a lot for mentioning our Pauline Oliveros in the arms of Reynols collaboration in your book Electronic & Experimental Music. She was a great musician/composer and friend.” After which he pointed me to a “recent release of an old project we made with Pauline back in 1999.” This is it!
Opening background music: Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt, Jim O'Rourke, “Side 1” from Tonic 19-01-2001 (2023 Black Truffle). Performers, Arnold Dreyblatt, Jim O'Rourke, Tony Conrad. Recorded January 19,2001 at Tonic, New York City.
Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.
For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.

New Arrivals to the Archives—Part 2: Noise Music, Improvisations, and Atmospheres

Episode 93
Playlist for Part 2
Noise and Improvisations
I found a mother lode of noise and experimental music hiding in the crates of my local New York record store.
Corum, “Effigy Mounds: Ceremonial Music For Spore Alter” side a from Effigy Mounds: Ceremonial Music For Spore Alter” (2014 Psychic Sounds). Effigy Mounds is the second album of the Beguiling Isles Trilogy (Born of Earth's Torments / Effigy Mounds / Magic Mirror). This LP is about spore modification, the rise of the puffs, and juice modification. All with tabletop electronics and found sounds. Played and recorded 2012/2013. 20:07
Crumer-Franco, “Agony In The Zodiac” from Agony In The Zodiac (2008 Ahaziah). Vinyl, 12", Single Sided, Limited Edition. Droning, beautiful noise, hums, and crackling. Collaborative recording by Jason Crumer and Matt Franco made during the "American Band" sessions. Limited to 100 copies. 13:17
Noise Nomads, “Side B” from Ernest Thrasher (2013 Feeding Tube Records). Vinyl, 12", Album, Limited Edition. Noise and rhythmic noise by Jeff Hartford. Using Tascam 424 With Greenwood Electronics 2012 - 2013. 14:07
Jojo Hiroshige, Pika, Paal Nilssen-Love, Lasse Marhaug, Osaka Fortune (2013 Premier Sang). French release of noise/jazz improvisation. More Drums, Paal Nilssen-Love; Drums, Pika; Guitar, Jojo Hiroshige; Noises, Lasse Marhaug. Recorded at Osaka Chika-Ikkai, February 10th 2011. This noise romp is side two of this record. It begins with a supplementary drum track that sounds like mono to which Pika adds her own crashing, continual rhythms in stereo. 14:58
Pod Blotz, The Swamp Command (2006 Fish Pies). Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition. Pod Blotz is the electronic, experimental noise project of Suzy Poling, started in 2002. Limited to 320 numbered copies. 7:00
Rodger Stella, Kites, “Untitled” (side 1). from Interior Moon (2011 Mutter Wild). Both sides of the LP end in a locked groove. Rhythmic noise that is modulated in real time to gradually shift the timbres of the piece from beginning to end. 17:56
UW OWL, “Black Flag” from Thorn Elemental (2006 Phaserphone). Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition Recorded in 2003 on a broken, dust-filled concrete basement floor in Bushwick, NY. Die-cut record sleeve with letter-pressed inner tip-on. Copy 118 of edition of 333. Electronics and drum machines. Reminiscent of early Cabaret Voltaire. 3:13
Atmospheres
Among the new arrival finds were several tracks that I categorize as atmospheric or ambient.
Skanfrom, “A Fax” from Split 12" (2000 A.D.S.R.). Now defunct electro synthpop label from Germany run by Skanfrom. Limited to 800 hand numbered copies. Mine is number 676. Skanfrom is Roger Semsroth. 3:15
AGE, “Landscape” and “Electronics” from Landscapes (1980 Gamm Records). Emmanuel D'haeyere and Guy Vachaudez, a Belgian EM duo with an affinity for ominous electronics. 9:12
AGE, “Hymalaya” from Landscapes (1980 Gamm Records). Emmanuel D'haeyere and Guy Vachaudez, a Belgian EM duo. I wanted contrast this soothing electronic sound with the previous tracks from this group. 2:34
Tangerine Dream, “Ride on the Ray” from Underwater Sunlight (1986 Relativity). Composed, Performed, Produced by Chris Franke, Edgar Froese, Paul Haslinger. Recorded April 1986, Berlin, West Germany. Another entry into the TG catalog. This album has some sounds and textures quite like Le Parc from 1985. 5:31
Nobuyoshi Koshibe (越部信義), Takashi Kokubo (小久保隆), “Midnight Submarine” (ミッドナイト・サブマリ) from Urashiman Synthesizer Fantasy (未来警察ウラシマン シンセサイザー・ファンタジー) (1983 Columbia). Continuing the water theme, some nicely produced Japanese synth music. 5:44
Opening background music: Thom Holmes, “Blader-WW1” (2019 no label). 16:36
 
Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation:
For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.